Less than 24 hours after President Barack Obama spoke to Illinois lawmakers about the need to compromise, Democrats and Republicans have reignited a high-stakes fight over contract negotiations with the state's largest union.

At issue is a labor-backed measure that would prevent a lockout or strike if talks with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and other unions reach an impasse and instead send the matter to binding arbitration. Democrats pushed the bill through a committee Thursday on a 16-7 vote, but it faces a tough road.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday returned to the place that launched his public career, delivering a memory-laden, valedictory-type address to Illinois lawmakers saying they and the nation deserve a "better politics" based on civility and compromise to cure a "poisonous political climate" that...

President Barack Obama on Wednesday returned to the place that launched his public career, delivering a memory-laden, valedictory-type address to Illinois lawmakers saying they and the nation deserve a "better politics" based on civility and compromise to cure a "poisonous political climate" that...

(Rick Pearson, Monique Garcia and Celeste Bott)

A similar bill passed the General Assembly but was vetoed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in late July. Speaker Michael Madigan attempted an override in September, but that effort fell short when he was unable to keep all 71 of his House Democrats unified.

Rauner's office issued a memo Thursday arguing the state cannot afford the costs associated with the proposal, contending it could lead to pay raises for union members and maintain high-cost health insurance should an arbitrator side with the union.

If the bill were to become law, "the General Assembly would effectively cede major financial decisions to unelected, unaccountable arbitrators," the administration said.

Sponsoring Rep. Emanuel "Chris" Welch, D-Hillside, said the bill marked a "major concession" by unions in giving up their right to strike, and he called on his colleagues to prevent a lockout and government shutdown.

Rauner has asked the Illinois Labor Relations Board to determine whether his administration and AFSCME have reached a stage in negotiations that would allow him to bypass further talks and impose his own terms on the roughly 38,000 state workers the union represents.

That review could take months, and Rauner and the union have agreed to keep workers on the job in the meantime. But if Rauner ultimately succeeds in putting a stop to the talks, the union will have to decide whether to go on strike for the first time.

As he courted voters in central Illinois nearly two years ago, candidate Bruce Rauner took the microphone at a Lincoln Day dinner and warned that he might "take a strike and shut down the government for a few weeks" to win new contracts with unionized state workers.

On Friday, the Republican governor...

(Kim Geiger, Monique Garcia and Celeste Bott)

In testimony to the committee, Mike Newman, deputy director of AFSCME Council 31, said a governor who has made weakening unions part of his agenda simply wants to force his terms without considering the pain and disruption a strike would cause.

"I've never heard a public employer boast that if there's a strike 'we will win,' " Newman said. "I don't know exactly how anybody could define a strike of tens of thousands of employees as a victory."

Rauner's office counters the union "cannot defend" its stance before the Labor Board. "And thus the arbitration gamble becomes very attractive for AFSCME, no matter how unaffordable it is to our taxpayers."

A version of this article appeared in print on February 12, 2016, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Rauner, Dems fight on labor bill - Parties lock horns day after Obama urges compromise" —
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